The Kingdom Exploration
by Forever-Tangled
Summary: What Rapunzel and Eugene may have done, exploring the Kingdom on her birthday. Based on the movie as well as the junior novelization AND the video game. Rated K. Fluffy adorableness :} Disclaimer: I don't own Tangled.


"Oh, thank you!"  
The blond girl twirled around, admiring the thick braid tumbling down to her ankles.  
Eugene couldn't help but smile. Her green eyes shone, and he suddenly realized just how beautiful she was-wait. No. He couldn't let that thought creep into his mind. Flynn Rider didn't fall in love. Love was for romantics, and only romantics. He should have learned by now to never let anyone in-but at the same time, a small part of his mind whispered that she was different. Realizing Maximus was staring at him smugly, he shoved his muzzle in disgust, turning away so the horse wouldn't catch his embarrassed expression. Was it really that obvious?

Rapunzel thanked each of the girls before skipping back to Eugene. Those girls hadn't used her hair, no one gave her any odd looks -well, maybe a few-and no one was attempting to kidnap her. Eugene, who even knew about her hair, wasn't using her or doing anything horrid to her. All the men she'd seen so far today didn't have pointy teeth, and she'd only seen one large bug so far. Was Mother wrong?  
"Where do we go?" she asked Eugene, simply filled to the brim with excitement. She couldn't _wait _to start the day!  
"It's your day," he told her...until he realized that she didn't know _where _to go! "But...we could just walk around 'til you see a place you want to check out."  
"Okay," she nodded, slipping in place beside him.  
Maximus followed on his other side, and they both attempted to shield Eugene somewhat -of course, that was rather hard to do, since Rapunzel was just over a foot shorter than him-and they would, of course, slip in somewhere if they saw guards.

Rapunzel soon found the dress shop, which was one of the first shops in the town square. Gasping, she asked Eugene if they could go in. She'd never seen many dresses, and had had her purple one since she was fourteen; her single dress aside from a nightgown. Eugene wasn't exactly enthused with the idea of being in a _dress shop_, but she gave him such an excited expression that he couldn't say no. It was the girl's birthday, after all, and she'd never been out of that tower...might as well make her day perfect.  
Looking around excitedly, Rapunzel flitted from display to display, gaping at all of the fancy dresses and women's accessories. Eugene noticed, with a chuckle, that even Pascal was having a hard time keeping up with her - she was dashing back and forth so quickly that he could barely hold onto her shoulder, it seemed!  
Even the seamstress watched her, amused.  
She finally noticed a pale green dress and gasped, taking it carefully from the display. She raced to the mirror to hold it up to herself. Twirling around, she smiled up at Eugene, silently asking what he thought.  
"It would look nice on you," he blurted.  
_No! _He seriously had not just told her that, had he? Man, he really needed to watch what he said. He was falling down the deep, dark abyss called love, and he no matter what he did, it seemed like he couldn't stop his rapid descent. It _was _true, the sight of her almost took his breath away, but he couldn't let on that he liked her. He dared not even hint at it! But he realized that blurting the compliment was worth it, because she gave him such a surprised and pleased expression...he got the idea that she didn't receive compliments too often.  
She rushed the dress back over to the display, and while she was carefully setting it back up, Eugene snagged a huge, floppy hat and flopped it down on her head teasingly. The brim fell down in her eyes, and she turned on her bare heel, giggling as she peeked out from under it to meet his glimmering brown eyes. Taking it off of her own head, she stood up on tiptoe to set it on _his _head instead.  
"You look quite handsome, sir," she joked.  
"I thought I was handsome to begin with," he threw back.  
"Hm. I don't know..." she teased.  
Of _course _she knew he was handsome. His brown eyes and little smile never failed to cause her heart to flutter, but she didn't know exactly why. Maybe she was falling in love! And that only made her nervous. What if he didn't like her back? She was pretty sure he did, but that small voice in the back of her head still told her that Mother was right; that Eugene was only being polite until he could get his satchel back. And what if he _did _like her back? Would she return to the tower, to Mother; or would she run away with him? She could hardly even imagine staying away from the tower, though...  
"Hey...earth to Blondie," Eugene joked, cutting off her thoughts abruptly. "We need to go find some lunch."  
"Oh! Sorry," she giggled, blushing.  
"Lost in thought again?" he asked, leading her out of the shop.  
"Mmm...yeah," she admitted. She didn't really want him to know that she was thinking about him.

They soon found a stand with relatively cheap food, and Eugene went in line to get some bread and cheese. _Purchase _bread and cheese, mind, not steal. He didn't want to get in trouble today; not when he had Rapunzel in tow. He didn't want to put her in harm's way, or -oh, geez-get her arrested as an accomplice to his crimes!

Rapunzel soon grew tired of waiting - it was a long line, and there was _so _much to see!-so she wandered off a couple of yards to look at the mosaic of the King and Queen. She noticed the lost Princess in the Queen's arms, and was surprised by the baby's long blond locks. Her green eyes looked almost just like hers! The baby looked like her mother. Something tickled the back of Rapunzel's mind, triggered by studying the King and Queen's faces, but she pushed it aside as she heard some instruments playing behind her.  
Gasping with delight, she realized how pretty the instruments sounded! She'd never heard any instrument except for her guitar - she was self-taught, of course - and couldn't help but start dancing to the music. She quickly pulled a small boy from the crowd, twirling around in a quick dance with him. He giggled in delight, and she gave him a small kiss on the cheek before letting him go, quickly working to pull other people into the dance, too.

"Here's your-" Eugene broke off, letting the hand he'd held the block of cheese out with drop to his side, mouth agape. In the time it had taken to order, Rapunzel had pulled half of the town into a dance! What _was _it about this girl, anyway? Her personality just brightened everyone's moods immediately.  
Maximus and Pascal, who was now clinging to Maximus's saddle, walked up behind Eugene as he stood, watching the girl dance. She caught him watching her, and twirled over, gesturing hopefully for him to come dance. He shook his head, and she shrugged, slipping back into the dance. Almost as soon as she had, though, Maximus shoved Eugene into the crowd, knocking the bread and cheese out of his hands. A large woman swept him up as her partner, and he flashed Maximus a look of sheer contempt.

A good while later, Eugene managed to worm his way out of the dance - too many people had seen his face, in his opinion- and Rapunzel quickly followed suit.  
"Can we go explore? The dance is fun and all, but I want to explore some more," she asked him.  
"Sure," he nodded. "Want to check out the library?"  
Her eyes brightened with excitement, and she grabbed Eugene's hand in hers, giddily tearing off. With a chuckle, he gave in to jogging after her, finally allowing her happiness to take over his mood.

Once they were at the library, she asked him to show her all the best books. Now _that _was something he could do.  
"What kind of books have you read?" he asked.  
"Um...a book about botany, a book about geology, and a book about animals," she said. She walked along the shelves, murmuring the titles softly as she trailed her fingers along the leather spines. She'd never seen this many books before, and it smelled heavenly!"Those are the only three books you've ever read?"  
"Well, I...I had some fairytales when I was younger, but when I started to ask Mother about the world outside of my tower, and if I would ever fall in love, and stuff like that...she took them away one day, and told me I was too old to be reading fairytales. I guess I was twelve, but..." she sighed. "I really liked them."  
Eugene snorted. "You're never too old for fairytales. That's practically child abuse!"  
She giggled quietly, grinning up at him. He didn't catch her expression, though, or he would've known that she was falling for him, too. She watched as he looked through the books, pulling one out every once in awhile with satisfaction. Once he had an armload, she followed him to the middle of the floor, where they spread all the books out and looked through them together. She knew she would cherish this day forever and ever, and Eugene was only making it more memorable by the minute.

Eventually, they gathered the books up and headed back outside to explore. They went to a bakery, where Rapunzel marveled at how sweet the place smelled. She'd never seen so many treats before in her life! Eugene surprised her with a cupcake, holding one for himself as well. She instantly gave him a dubious look.  
"I bought them," he bent to whisper in her ear. Grinning her approval, she took her cupcake in one hand and Eugene's hand in the other, leading him outside. They walked slowly and ate, savoring their treats. Maximus and Pascal wandered off, bored with the uneventful afternoon.  
Eugene soon heard clinking, and peeked quickly over his shoulder to see two guards behind them, talking idly. They didn't even pay attention to Eugene or Rapunzel, but he couldn't take any chances.  
"Sh...c'mon," he whispered, squeezing Rapunzel's hand and tugging her around a corner to a doorway, slipping inside the stone archway. Pressing their backs against either side of the archway, they both peeked out and waited for the guards to pass. When they did, the pair turned back, laughing silently. They stayed there to finish off their cupcakes, and Rapunzel spotted a smear of yellow icing near his lip.

"You have..." she gestured awkwardly and he quirked a brow. What was she doing, exactly? "Your...oh, come here!" she tugged his collar, and his eyes widened. Was she going to kiss him?! -No. She swiped at his skin before pulling back with a giggle, showing him the icing now on her slender finger. "Icing."  
"O-oh," he laughed. Was he actually disappointed that she hadn't kissed him? Wow. What was wrong with him? "Uh...thanks."  
Before he could regain his thoughts -which were reeling-she grabbed his hand again, tugging him out into the open.

They quickly flitted back and forth from merchant stand to merchant stand. After he bought her a flag with the kingdom emblem on it -which she was beyond excited about - he caught sight of a lantern stand.  
Sticking his hand back in the pouch tied to his belt, he silently judged how many coins he had left. Why was he blowing all of the cash he'd set back on this girl? Maybe _he _was the crazy one. Why did he even like her?!  
Maybe because now, he didn't find her bubbly, innocent personality annoying, he found it sweet; refreshing, cute.  
Snapping back out of his thoughts, he sent her back into the town square, promising he would be back in a couple of minutes. As soon as she was gone, he bought two lanterns, dashing off to see if there were any boats available.  
Thank goodness, there were several small boats still left that hadn't been reserved. He haggled the rental price down to almost nothing - a skill he'd learned over the years - and then tucked the lanterns away under his seat before he quickly made his way back to the town square.

When he got back, he looked around frantically for Rapunzel. He couldn't see her _anywhere_, and it was starting to really concern him.  
Had she gotten lost?  
"Rapunzel?" he called quietly, not wanting to draw attention to himself.  
Soon, a blond head popped up from near the ground. She was surrounded by a group of little kids, and she was showing them how to draw with some chalks. She gave him an excited little wave before turning back to the children, and his shoulders drooped in relief.  
He also couldn't help but stand back and watch with admiration as she taught the kids. She was amazing with them, and quickly taught them how to draw on the cobblestones with the chalks. When they moved off, she went back to a huge blob.  
"See what I'm working on?" she asked, smiling up at him.  
"Uh...sure?" he asked, not wanting to hurt her feelings. It looked like a huge yellow and purple blob to him, personally.  
"It's the kingdom sun, silly!" she giggled. "It'll look better later. Can you please hold the flag so I can have a good reference without getting it all messy?"

That's basically how he ended up standing in the middle of the town square, holding a flag for a crazy blond so she could draw it on the cobblestone. He didn't mind.

Around the sun, Rapunzel chalked in some of the villagers. One of the men looked suspiciously like Eugene - right down to the nose, he admired - but he was kissing a brunette. She worked faster than lightning, singing a cute little tune to herself as she worked and stopping periodically to help children or adults, giving them advice for their own art.  
_The kids at the orphanage would love her,_ Eugene thought to himself, _if that old pigsty is still open._  
Finally, after Rapunzel had finished her drawing and rinsed off her messy hands, the dance slowly resumed. Eugene was hoping to dance with her, but they kept being separated, led off with partner after partner. Rapunzel was hoping to dance with him, too, and _finally, _they collided together in the center of the town square; Eugene holding her waist tightly and her hand firmly in his, and they both stared at each other in surprise, puffing and out of breath from their dances with other partners.  
The music stopped as abruptly as they had slammed into one another; much to the dismay of both of them, and the town crier yelled "To the boats!"  
They came back to their senses quickly, pulling away and giving one another embarrassed smiles as they parted. A lock of Rapunzel's hair had fallen in her eyes, and he wanted nothing more to brush her hair out of her eyes before leading her into a long, slow dance; and got the idea that Rapunzel wanted to, too, but at the same time...the lanterns were about to be released!  
He told her where the boat was, telling her he would be over in a minute, and she went ahead with Maximus and Pascal.  
As soon as she saw the lone boat at the dock, she slipped Eugene's satchel from one of Maximus's saddle bags, hurriedly cramming it beneath her seat. She tried to calm her shaking hands before he came up to her. Moments later, he came over, helped her into the boat, and snagged Pascal before he tossed a burlap bag under his seat. As they pushed off, Maximus gave them a questioning, almost sad expression. He thought he would get to witness Rapunzel's dream come true, too! Eugene tossed the bag, which was full of apples, onto the dock.  
Snorting disdainfully, Maximus gave him a _look. _  
"What? I _bought_ them." Eugene reassured, called back to him. As Maximus started eating happily, he couldn't help but add - even though it wasn't true - "_Most of them._"  
"Where are we going?" Rapunzel asked him. She hoped he wasn't taking her back to the tower before the lanterns were released!  
"Best day of your life, I figured you should have a decent seat," he told her, setting Pascal onto a small knob on the boat before shoving off with the oar. She gave a hum of excited approval, looking around with those wide, pretty green eyes.


End file.
